Birmingham City Council's financial woes have been blamed on leadership turmoil during the last three years.

Current deputy leader Cllr Brigid Jones (Lab) said the resignations of former leaders John Clancy and Sir Albert Bore had 'distracted' the authority at the crucial time when it should have been setting its budget.

The Bournbrook and Selly Oak ward member argued that they ultimately resulted in failed savings targets and the second stern warning from auditors in as many years.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, September 11) the full council will debate the current state of the finances, which has seen the authority spend £117m of reserves in two years and still not balance the books.

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Cllr Jones believes it is no coincidence audit warnings came soon after both events.

Addressing the coordinating overview and scrutiny committee on Friday (September 7) she said: "What that says to me is that the background processes that should have been in place for making sure the budget was being set appropriately weren't running as they should have been because it was too easy for the organisation to get distracted by other events."

The deputy leader added: "What we need to make sure of going forward is that whatever background mechanisms we have for budget setting, of making sure those plans are realistic and those plans are deliverable, needs to be robust enough that it is still running regardless of what other events might be going on to distract us from that, and make sure we don't get knocked off course as we have on both previous occasions that this has happened."